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The volunteer rate was little changed at 25.3 percent for the year ending in September 2014, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. About 62.8 million people volunteered through or for an organization at least once between September 2013 and September 2014. The volunteer rate in 2013 was 25.4 percent.

In Supporting Grantee Capacity: Strengthening Effectiveness Together, we look at how funders approach building capacity with grantees. Through examples from foundations ranging in size, mission, and geography, we explore various strategies for capacity building and the types of awareness that funders can choose to incorporate in decision making to facilitate informed, thoughtful judgments about strengthening organizations.

The Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute and the Association of Fundraising Professionals established the Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP) to conduct research on fundraising effectiveness and help nonprofit organizations increase their fundraising results. Piloted in November 2006, FEP collects fundraising data from nonprofit organizations beginning with data for 2004-2005. The 2014 report, the latest in the annual series, incorporates data from 3,576 organizations that contributed data for 2012-2013.

America’s biggest donors gave $9.8-billion to nonprofits in 2014, with foundations and higher education receiving the most money. A number of donors are focused on scientific research, and some tech entrepreneurs are giving while they’re still building their businesses.

In this report, Kwak and Keleher examine the experience of the U .S . Department of Education in implementing risk management initiatives, which it initiated in 2001 . During this period, the department created its Risk Management Service, and expanded that office in 2007 . At the same time, the department also con- tinued to refine and revise its risk management tools, and now uses two new tools: the State Score Cards and the Entity Risk Review . This report explains how these two tools are being used and provides examples of how risk management tools have been used to track the progress of two high risk grantees: Detroit Public Schools and Puerto Rico .

Based on their examination of the Department of Education’s experience, Young and Keleher present a series of lessons learned and recommendations for other agencies . A major lesson is that the use of an automated, data-driven risk assessment tool enabled the department to apply uniform and consistent risk assessment procedures and make better use of audit data . The authors also learned that effective risk management is an iterative process that requires thoughtful use of existing data sources and consistent efforts to incorporate new ones .

The effectiveness of conservation organizations is determined in part by how they adapt to changing conditions. Over the previous decade, economic conditions in the United States (US) showed marked variation including a period of rapid growth followed by a major recession. We examine how biodiversity conservation nonprofits in the US responded to these changes through their financial behaviors, focusing on a sample of 90 biodiversity conservation nonprofits and the largest individual organization (The Nature Conservancy; TNC). For the 90 sampled organizations, an analysis of financial ratios derived from tax return data revealed little response to economic conditions. Similarly, more detailed examination of conservation expenditures and land acquisition practices of TNC revealed only one significant relationship with economic conditions: TNC accepted a greater proportion of conservation easements as donated in more difficult economic conditions. Our results suggest that the financial behaviors of US biodiversity conservation nonprofits are unresponsive to economic conditions.

7. Electronic Submissions in Federal Procurement: Implementation by the Army Corps of Engineers and Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation. GAO-15-253R, December 18.http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-15-253R